At the beginning of the 90’s, the European Union initiated a railways reform with the aim to
face the decline of railway transport, as well as to increase railway competitiveness and
interoperability at European scale. The First Railway Package of this reform focused on the
split between infrastructure management and operation and, therefore, on the establishment of
pricing systems. Due to lack of straight definition, the application of the Directives on
infrastructure charges in the different European countries has given rise to a large spectrum of
charging systems. It is a direct consequence of the differences in the charging philosophies
(MC –marginal cost, MC+ - marginal cost with mark-ups, FC –Full Cost recovery, etc.), the
charging types (single tariff, two-parts tariff) and the parameters (or variables) chosen for
defining the amount of the charge in each particular case.
This paper analyses the rail infrastructure charges in 23 European countries from the point of
view of the parameters used for defining them. The analysis deepens the knowledge of
qualitative differences between these countries’ pricing structure. Furthermore, it analyses its
consequences in the total amount of the charge to be paid by passenger services running
through links considered to be the best national railways relations in each one of the countries
studied. Concerning the qualitative analysis, forty-six different types of variables were
identified for the whole of the systems analysed. With regard to the quantitative field,calculations reveal that infrastructure charges range from 14,6 €/train-km to 0,6 €/train-km for
“comparable” national links.
The last part of this paper discusses the weight of those fares for the use of infrastructure for
intercity rail passenger services with regard to its competitor mode. Results from an analysis
of 100 national and international links allow drawing some conclusions on the possible
impacts of railway infrastructure pricing on the railways competitive framework in Europe.

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